These types of stories are so hard to read, and even more difficult to write. I’m not sure if you’ve seen the images on this one, but there’s been another trussing collapse, this time in Trieste, Italy:

Unfortunately, a 20 year old hand was killed in this accident as he helped assemble the rig – Francesco Pinna was pronounced at the scene, and eight others were taken to a hospital. Theatre Safety Guru and general ridiculously intelligent engineer Erich Friend posted the initial article on this horrible tragedy, his article is posted on his safety blog, The Theatre Safety Blog. From Erich’s blog post on the Trieste collapse:

The concert has been cancelled and the remainder of the Ora Tour has been suspended pending investigation. The sports complex in the San Sabba district, next to the Nereo Rocco football stadium, was seized by the authorities and cordoned-off. “All concerts have been suspended”, announced Maurizio Salvadori, owner of the Trident agency that manages the artist. “We’ll decide what to do tomorrow but at the moment no one wants to go on stage. It is not known why the structure collapsed. As always, everything was certified by an engineer. The structure was used all summer with no problems.” Mr Salvadori explained that the “ground support”, scaffolding that carries speakers and reflectors, had given way. The mayor of Trieste, Roberto Cosolini, hurried to the site of the accident and underlined the urgent need for “the investigations and expert reports to ascertain responsibility for this incident to be carried out with maximum rigour”.

Ugh. What horrible news. There’s not a lot of information flying around about this accident, but there are several videos posted on Youtube about the aftermath and how horrible it looks. Here are a few videos, all post event, of the aftermath of the Jovanotti concert truss collapse:

…and another video showing some collapse aftermath:

I’m so sorry to Francesco Pinna and his family and friends. This is for certain a horrible tragedy.